WHY YOU CARE: Pentagram was the first American band to take Black Sabbath’s blueprint for heavy metal and craft truly great new songs. Unfortunately, drugs, disorganization and bad luck left the group without a recording contract for its first 15 years. Demos were cut for several labels, but no deals were ever struck. By the time Pentagram became a semi-functional album-generating band in the mid-’80s, doom was the least commercial style of music around. But frontman Bobby Liebling and crew pressed on, if only to afford another fix. Pentagram was a myth even in the doom metal underground. But the Internet age finally came, and no stone remains unturned. Relapse Records came to the rescue, remastering two collections of Pentagram’s early compositions. Liebling is an old and unhealthy man—the least likely survivor of this essential and long-toothed act. Replacing his fallen comrades is a selection of second-generation Baltimore doom scenesters—truly the best living men for the job.